


Steady as She Goes

by Lady_Therion



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-18 20:50:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4719986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Therion/pseuds/Lady_Therion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He accompanies her to his brother's wedding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steady as She Goes

**Author's Note:**

> I know that it's been done before, but do love me a good wedding trope - especially if it involves Lokane. 
> 
> Fic title is a reference to "Steady as She Goes" by the Raconteurs.

* * *

 

For three days, the invitation sits on Jane’s coffee table—a cheap relic from undergrad that looks even cheaper now that an ornate envelope sat on its surface. The paper is made from heavy vellum and smells like foreign perfume. A wax emblem seal with a double-headed raven practically screams “old money.”

She doesn’t need to open it to know whom it’s from, and in fact throws it out a few days later when the agony becomes too sharp to dull with work or alcohol. And that, she thinks, is the end of that.

She’s wrong, of course.

The following month, another invitation arrives and she wonders if the universe was playing a cruel joke.

Later, she would find out that she was half right. 

***

At some point, she buys enough five-dollar wine bottles to open the envelope with trembling fingers. It’s the one time she makes an indulgent purchase with her grant money, and she hopes to God that she won’t regret it.

She does, of course.

There, in gilded curlicue lettering, was the irrefutable truth.

_Together with their families, Thor Odinson and Sif Helland request the honor of your presence at the celebration of their union._

An equally ornate RSVP card falls onto the linoleum flooring of her trailer. _Accept with pleasure. Decline with regret._ True or false. Circle yes or no. Jane always tested well in school—but not, apparently, when it came to matters of the heart.

She knows that she is being childish at best, cowardly at worst. But regardless, she downs the rest of the wine and stuffs the invitation—RSVP and all—into the garbage disposal. There is a sick sort of pleasure at watching the expensive paper rip to shreds. And she knows that she’ll feel terrible about it later.

In the morning, she wakes with dry mouth and head-throbbing hangover. Also, it turns out the sink would need to be repaired.

She gets another invitation the following week.

This time she does circle no and makes a pretty mean emphasis of it with a red sharpie. _Decline…with pleasure._ She whistles as she drops it off at the post office, her body feeling a whole lot lighter as she sees it slide into the carrier.  

Is this what Erik keeps talking about? That confronting her “unresolved issues” would ultimately make her a better person?

“I know it hurts Janie,” he says to her once, right before her move to Puente Antiguo. “But give it time. Be the better person here. Karma will sort itself out, yeah?”

She doesn’t know about that. Karma is a concept that doesn’t fit in with her empiricist values. But when she goes home that night to sift through internship applications, she doesn’t even think about weddings or heartbreakingly clueless ex-fiancés.

***

The following week, she gets a phone call—and it wasn’t from Erik.

“Jane Foster?”

She frowns, unable to place the smooth voice on the other end of the line. “Yes?”

“This is Loki Odinson.”

After a moment of baffled silence, she tries to think of something really eloquent to say, something that would convey that she had perfect mental health, strong-willed independence and hard-earned advanced degrees.

“Oh.”

In the five years that she and Thor were together, he only ever mentioned his estranged brother once—and made it pretty clear that he wouldn’t like to mention him again. She’s heard the bits and pieces, and none of it was good.

“ _He is dangerous_ ,” she remembers Thor saying. “ _And he has nothing but contempt for me_.”

That Loki would be calling her now, when he hadn’t spoken to his own family in forever, was raising all sorts of red flags.

“I know this is short notice, and I’d hate to inconvenience you.” The smug note in his chillingly cordial manner tells her otherwise. It makes her shiver…and she’s not entirely sure it’s all fear. “You received an invitation to my brother’s wedding, I gather?”

“Yeah, I did.” She tries to sound indignant without being whiny. She fails spectacularly of course, and vainly hopes that Loki doesn’t notice. “Listen, I hate this to cut this short, but I already declined.”

Given how things ended, she’s surprised that the Odinsons sent her anything at all. If anything, the invite was sent out of pity and the fact that Loki subtly reminds her of this insult frays her nerves.

“That’s precisely why I called. There’s an opportunity here that I believe would be beneficial to us both. And it starts with you accompanying me to my brother’s wedding… as my guest.”

Statistically speaking, there are about a dozen mature ways that she can react to this.

But hindsight’s always 20/20.

“Fuck no.”

She can practically picture his smug grin over the phone.

“Come now,” he says, reasonably. “I’m really not as sinister as the rumors say. I can be quite good company, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“That’s not what I—look, aren’t you and Thor, like, _over_? As in over, over?”

“Perhaps not as over as you and he are.”

_Wow. What an asshole._

“That doesn’t answer my question,” she hisses. “Why even go if you hate him so much?”

“Because my mother wishes it so.” A pause. “And unlike Thor, my mother has never alienated me _._ But then you would know a little something about, wouldn’t you Jane Foster? How one minute, you feel as though you are the pillar of his very world and the next…nothing, not even a speck.”

“You…I…”

He was seriously screwed up, and things were escalating quickly. The worst part is that sheknows, _she knows_ , he’s pushing her buttons. And if she really wants this to end, she can just hang up the phone.

But she doesn’t, does she?

“I wouldn’t have the cash to fly out there anyway.” The wedding was in Norway, and her budget is already stretched thin enough as it is.

“Money’s no object,” says Loki in the tone of someone who knows the privilege of what that’s like. Blowhard. “I can wire you the funds for a ticket as we speak.”

Which sounds shady as hell, but Jane is too sickened by his nonchalance. Plus, the whole “I’ll pay for your ticket” thing makes her feel uncomfortably whorish.

“I’m not doing this,” she says, summoning up whatever dregs of dignity she has left.

“Why?” He almost sounds sincere. “Given what my brother has done, I can’t imagine you would feel any amount of sympathy for him.”

Okay, that _really_ pisses her off.

“You have _no idea_ what went on between us,” she spits out. “ _None._ And you’ve got another thing coming if you think I’m going to show up to his wedding with his evil brother in tow.”

She’s not that kind of person. _She’s not._

There is a long silence at the other end of the line. 

“Very well, Jane Foster,” he says as if she hadn’t just freaked out six ways to Sunday. “Let me give you my contact information, in case you change your mind.”

“Don’t bother,” she says. “I don’t plan on talking to you again.”

She makes the point of hanging up first…and while there’s a rush of satisfaction, there’s a part of her that tremulously wonders if she would actually make good on that promise. 

***

Of course, it doesn’t take long for her to eat shit.

She was never a proponent of Murphy’s Law, but grudgingly considers its possibility when her grant checks stop coming in the mail…or when the electricity company cuts off her power…or when, most embarrassing of all, her credit cards are declined at the grocery store. The last one leaves her seething, and she ends up having to ask Erik to wire her cash like it was still her freshman year at Cal Tech. 

She looks through her phone and finds Loki’s number in her call log, glaring at it like she can bodily injure him by proxy.

“I take it you’ve changed your mind?”

“Thor was right,” she spits venomously. “You _are_ a bastard.”  

“How rude,” he says with the disinterest of someone chatting about the weather. “Though it’s nothing I haven’t heard before.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Doing what?” He sneers. “Having a bad week, I take it?”

“You’ve given me nothing but hell.”

“And do you have proof that I did so?”

“I…”

It’s true. She doesn’t…and it’s clear that arguing with him would only lead her in circles.

Has she really sunk so low?

“Okay, let’s just say I agree to do this...” She _cannot_ believe that those words just came out of her mouth, she _cannot_. “I don’t want to hurt Thor. He doesn’t deserve that.”

“That’s very generous of you,” says Loki. “It’s a shame that my brother didn’t have the courtesy to do the same.”

That stings. Badly.

“I’m _just_ going because your family invited me in the first place,” she persists. “Whatever your plans are… I don’t want to be part of them.”

He laughs.

“Oh, sweet Jane. You already are.”

 

 


End file.
